Santa Fe Insert Issues

[NM Nick]

Good evening,

I am having a problem or two with my Qadrafire Pellet stove. Four years old, cleaned regularly.

I was having an inconsistent flame burn too high, then too low. After reading some posts on this board I did the following:

1. Removed Auger, cleaned and reinstalled.
2. Did a deep clean on the fire pot and around the backs of the ceramic tiles. Vacuumed and scrubbed every nook and cranny.
3. Did a Leaf blower clean out of the top of the stove pipe and cleaned the air intake vent.
4. Replaced thermocouple.
5. Replaced igniter.
6. Removed and cleaned blower motor and exhaust fan.
7. Replaced door gasket.

Well, I fired it up this afternoon and everything seemed to be the same, except the flame was a bit low.

Tonight, I turned it on an pellets started to load..and kept loading...and kept loading. It took a long time to light, the fire got going and then just erupted with a huge fire in the pot and pellets kept loading. The blower did not kick on and the fire did not make it to the auger shoot but almost.

I pulled the pot lever and took three loads of burning pellets out to a safe place outside. I checked snap disk two, and three.


I let it cool then cleaned out the pot. I started it up again and it did the same thing except the fan turned on this time. Any thoughts?

I have been burning Nature's Heat all winter.

thanks,
Nick

 

[begreen]

Welcome Nick. I moved you over to the pellet forum for a quicker response. How do the pellets look? Are they a consistent size of about 3/4" or are they random lengths, sometimes much longer?

 

[Fish On]

did you clean the vacuum hose and switch.

 

[NM Nick]

Hi Be Green and Fishon,

The pellets are mostly the same size and consistent. As for the vacuum switch, I checked the vacuum hose lines and they were fine but the switch is a sealed box so I did not clean inside of it, I did check and clean the connections though.

 

[Den-Den]

Good evening,

I am having a problem or two with my Qadrafire Pellet stove. Four years old, cleaned regularly.

I was having an inconsistent flame burn too high, then too low. After reading some posts on this board I did the following:

1. Removed Auger, cleaned and reinstalled.
2. Did a deep clean on the fire pot and around the backs of the ceramic tiles. Vacuumed and scrubbed every nook and cranny.
3. Did a Leaf blower clean out of the top of the stove pipe and cleaned the air intake vent.
4. Replaced thermocouple.
5. Replaced igniter.
6. Removed and cleaned blower motor and exhaust fan.
7. Replaced door gasket.

Well, I fired it up this afternoon and everything seemed to be the same, except the flame was a bit low.

Tonight, I turned it on an pellets started to load..and kept loading...and kept loading. It took a long time to light, the fire got going and then just erupted with a huge fire in the pot and pellets kept loading. The blower did not kick on and the fire did not make it to the auger shoot but almost.

I pulled the pot lever and took three loads of burning pellets out to a safe place outside. I checked snap disk two, and three.


I let it cool then cleaned out the pot. I started it up again and it did the same thing except the fan turned on this time. Any thoughts?

I have been burning Nature's Heat all winter.

thanks,
Nick

I had the same problem two days ago, the auger keeps running unless I removed power or opened the door and the vacuum switch opened. Mine is internal on the control board,I have parts ordered to hopefully repair the board, one thing that comes to mind, and mind you I am no expert, but I would check to be sure control box is firmly seated. another thing may be an issue with the thermo coupler thinking the stove is lite and keeps feeding pellets.

 

[tjnamtiw]

For an inconsistent burn height, why would you replace the thermocouple if it was indicating red and green lights inside control box? Why replace the igniter if it was obviously working to start your fire? You are saying that the feed is constant or is it just dropping at its normal intervals. This is important

During your cleaning, did you also pull the control box out and replace it? Did you do it with the stove plugged in or unplugged? Tell the truth now. :cheese: ;-)

With you pulling the stove out and pulling out the blowers, it's very easy to disconnect some wires but I'm not sure how that would give you a constant feed. I don't think we have enough info yet to answer the question. Continuous feed or normal on/off is the first question.

 

[NM Nick]

Thanks Den Den & tjnamtiw,

tjnamtiw, I unplugged the unit before cleaning the blower and exhaust fans, I have not replaced the control board. The issues last night were interval feeds, every 10-15 seconds. I replaced the igniter and the thermocouple based on my limited experience. thanks,

nick

 

[Den-Den]

Is it OK today?
When it is trying to start up what color light, lights on the box?
Another thing to see is when you first plug in the stove how many flashes does the blue light flash on the control box?

 

[tjnamtiw]

Good point, Den-Den.
Just wanted to make sure that the stove was unplugged. It is very easy when you are digging around in there to dislodge the control box. It doesn't really fit all that tightly and if you remove it when the stove's plugged in, there's a good chance that you toast the control box. Just checking.

Well, if it was feeding in intervals like it was supposed to then it sounds like you were just feeding way too much each cycle. With you cleaning out the auger and hopper, you might have removed a partial blockage that was making you open up the feed more than normal. Then when you restarted with everything clean, the feed gate was just open too far. Also, it's that time of year when you've burned enough to get some serious ash buildup in the combustion blower, which would reduce your airflow through the burnpot. When you had it pulled out, did you run a brush up the flue. Maybe when you put it back together you got a slug of ash drop down into the nice and clean blower. My guess, though, is just overfeeding.

 

[NM Nick]

Thanks Den-Den and tjnamtiw for your help,

In answer to the help questions: The control box flashed 6 times on power up (I live at 7k feet, so I think this is correct?), I also checked the lower portion of the exhaust pipe for a big settling of soot and there was none, I took off the blower motor and peeked inside but no ash buildup-in fact it looked brand new after the cleaning. The feed rate is 1/4 inch above mininum and I get the red light at startup from the thermostat.

Here is where I am now-- today I pulled everything out again, double checked all connections to blower motor and exhaust motor. Then I pulled out the vacuum switch, I noticed some flaky pieces inside by moving the black male connector housing around, so I vacuumed those out too and then used electrical tape to set that housing in the opening (I have read on this board about these being loose). I pulled out the control board and used a small bit of ductape to seal off the holes and took the shop vac to that too, then securely placed it pack in the wire housing.

Then I started looking at the snap disks. I decided to replace all three of those because I had the parts and well, wanted to figure this out.

HERE is the interesting thing, it looks like snapdisk three was used in snapdisk two's location and visa-versa (e.g. One of them has a manual reset and the other does not).

Could THIS be the issue? Because, I put it all back together again, like humpty dumpty, and fired her up. It has been running normal now for 70 minutes. The flame height is still varying a little but not early as dramatic as before. I realize I did not do a scientific diagnoses because I did not fire her up after each little thing but o well.

Thanks again for all the questions here to help me- I will post again to update. If someone knows if snadisk three in two's location and visa-versa could cause this- I would be curious.

thanks again,

Nick

 

[jtp10181]

None of the parts you replaced would have any effect on your original problem. The only thing that might have been causing it was an intermittent vac switch failure. If the plastic switch is loose from the metal housing you need to replace it. I am sorry to say but you wasted money on all the other parts you replaced. Probably just needed a good cleaning, and maybe a new vacuum switch.

 

[NM Nick]

Hi jtp1081,

Thanks for your comments, I have ordered a new Vacuum Switch based on my discovery, other forum posts, and your feedback.

Based on your comments, I agree, a good cleaning was in order but based on your expertise and insight, what do you think caused the post fire after the cleaning, Vac switch, snapdisks, or some random fire? I just want to be cautious not to have another fire like that after I replace the Vac switch.


thanks for you help,

Nick

 

[jtp10181]

A continuous constant feed from the auger would have to be a control box issue. It sounds like you were getting cycled feeds though, but it seemed to be too much pellets? This is typically caused from lack of maintenance. One common problem would be if the holes in the firepot are restricted. The pellets burn at a slower rate than normal which then appears like the stove is over feeding.

Is it possible there is a problem in your stat (or remote) wiring. This could cause the red call for heat light to go out then back on intermittently which would have the same effect as hitting the reset button during start up. It would restart the "start up" cycle and feed more pellets than normal.

 

[tjnamtiw]

you know, jtp, you might have a point there. Two things come to mind. My thermostat locked up one time. It locked in the open position and I just tapped it and it called for heat again. The other real possibility is how the wiring is run to the stove. Sometimes the wire is run under a rug across a doorway and it gets broken or frayed. Every time someone steps on it, the circuit closes and it calls for pellets. Possible????

With the intermittent feed, if it isn't the wiring, then it was just misadjusted for the pellet size after a good cleaning.

Yes, and if those elusive little holes are not kept open along the bottom of the fire pot, you won't get a good burn. Plus you have to keep the slot for the igniter wide open or you get a late start with the extra smoke and possibly a 'boom'.